Welcome Speech by Sunil Prasad, President, GOPIO Belgium to the GOPIO
Conference on “NRI/PIO Business Networking for Trade and Investment and
Contribution of Indian Diaspora in Europe”, 4 October, Brussels (Belgium)
Honourable Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Mr. Jagdish Tytler, His
Excellency Ambassador Abhyankar, MEPs Ms. Neena Gill, Dr. Charles Tannock,
GOPIO Chairman Dr. Abraham, President Mr. Inder Singh, Excellencies from
various Missions and distinguished guests.
It is my proud privilege to extend you all a warm welcome.
We are honoured to-day with the presence of the Mr.
Jagdish Tytler in our midst. Tytlerji you have many
achievements to your credit but assuming the Ministerial
responsibility of the first ever created exclusive Ministry for
Overseas Indian Affairs, we believe is a tribute to your
experience and your capacity to take up new challenges.
A dynamic leader that you are, we have no doubt that you
will successfully establish a deeper understanding of the
vision and aspirations of the Indian Diaspora. GOPIO will
extend you full co-operation. Sir, Belgium is not amongst
the 16 countries whose Indian Diaspora can avail the dual
nationality and I would urge upon the Indian government
to take up this issue with the Belgium Government.
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I would also like to take this opportunity to express my
deep gratitude to the Government of India and particularly
to His Excellency Abhyankar for his support and cooperation in organizing this event.
I specially welcome MEPs Ms. Neena Gill, Dr. Charles
Tannock and Mr. Nirj Deva. They have been doing a
yeomen service to promote understanding between India
and Europe in the parliament. They are our voice, they are
our representatives. We owe our special tribute to Nirj
because it is he who inspired us to organize a conference
on the theme of Business Networking. Thank you Nirj.
Participants here are successful business and community
leaders in their own rights. They make India and their
home countries proud of their achievements.
Never before the Indian diamond community associated
itself with any activity of such nature and today I warmly
welcome Mr. Bharat Shah, Member of the Board of the
Indo-Belge Diamantaires Association and the shining
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diamond delegation from Antwerp. Their participation and
sponsorship opens a new chapter for deepening our
partnership with them.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome and thank
GOPIO Chairman Dr. Thomas Abraham and President Mr.
Inder Singh for their intense interest in GOPIO Belgium.
To all GOPIO International leaders I would like to welcome
and salute them with my tribute: This is our moment of
pride and you are the source and secret of our strength.
Your presence we consider is the most precious birthday
gift for us. We celebrated our second birthday only two
days ago. I also welcome the journalists and Media
groups who are here in great numbers particularly from
the O.H.M. from The Netherlands.
Ladies and gentlemen, today GOPIO is not just a
celebrated organization, this event is a celebration of itself.
I would like to express my deep appreciation and sincere
thanks to the Members of GOPIO and its Executive
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Committee for their personal support to me in carrying out
my responsibilities. They have given me strength, courage
and wisdom and they have shared the responsibility;
equally but differently. Believe me, my only contribution in
organizing this event, has been to lead and translate the
unified collective directive of our organization into an
effective institutional framework. The credit of GOPIO’s
achievements therefore goes to them and them alone.
I welcome and thank the sponsors of the Conference
particularly sponsorship from our own members as it is
their support that has helped us to organize this event.
Friends, from Malta to Mexico, Nigeria to New Zealand
and Thailand to Trinidad although the Indian Diaspora live
under 110 different national flags, their dreams are one,
their visions are similar and their aspirations are identical
- to achieve excellence in social, cultural, academic,
economic and political lives.
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During the last three decades, this community has
emerged as a dynamic factor, changing India's image and
steering a dynamic shift to India’s advantage in the world
affairs. In order to exert greater influence and power, what
Indian Diaspora also need is political cohesion among
them through social, cultural and business network.
Shri Tytlerji, however, I would like to point out that the 22
million Indian Diaspora must not be seen only as a source
of potential economic benefit. The rise and success of this
community in their “home” countries is as important as the
success of Indians in India. Their success is our success,
their achievement is our pride. In order to create
everlasting relationship with them what India should aim is
to establish better connectivity with a common foundation
of mutual identity and strategic transformation of
intellectual capital between them.
This Conference is about institutionalizing a body to
enhance trade and commerce between Europe and India,
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it is about our strategic role in Europe, it is about raising
the profile of the Indian community, it is about economics
and politics, it is about learning and emulating the
successful political and entrepreneurship skills of the
Indian Americans, it is about our pride and prejudice, it is
about our hope and despair, it is about our role and
responsibilities, it is about our strength and weakness, it is
about our rights and privileges, it is about our image and it
is also about establishing Indian heritage in the European
economic and political space.
Ladies and gentlemen, with more than 225 participants
from 24 countries this truly is an international event of
global importance. Since printing our list of participants,
12 more have joined us. Tytlerji, if you permit, I would say
that this event is a mini Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Europe.
History will be created this afternoon with the launching of
the Europe-India Chamber of Commerce. Three eminent
Indian and European industrialists Dr. Ajit Shetty, who is
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undoubtedly the most successful Indian Industrialist in this
country, Mr. Sanjay Dalmia, Chairman of the Dalmia
Group of Companies in India and Mr. Karan Bilimoria, the
young and the pioneering industrialist of UK will jointly
launch this Chamber. The Chamber which will closely
work with the European Commission, will cater to the long
standing need for an institutionalized body to promote
trade and commerce between India and Europe. The
Constitution and structure of the Chamber will take into
account the emerging trade and commerce policies of the
Commission and will work in tandem with the Government
of India.
Efforts were made in the 70s and 90s to launch such a
body but due to several factors and more particularly
because of the absence of effective interest and
seriousness, the efforts did not see the light of the day.
But to-day, this Chamber is no longer a dream, it is a
reality. In the coming months, the GOPIO will host a
meeting of all those Chambers of Commerce in the EU
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countries doing business with India to follow it up. Indeed,
we shall seek co-operation from the Embassy of India.
The success of this Chamber will depend upon the
transparency of its functioning, your active participation
and your support.
Let me say that by assembling here to day, we are
observing not only a celebration of the aspirations of the
Indian Diaspora, but also a symbol of the beginning of a
new relationship between India, Indian Diaspora and the
European Union.
GOPIO welcomes the EU-India engagement and stronger
economic co-operation. We would like to assure the
European Union that three million Indian Diaspora in
Europe will continue to contribute to the economic
prosperity of Europe and in strengthening the EU-India
relations. This is our pledge to Europe. We hope that the
Europe-India Summit next week will be another milestone
in India’s strategic relations with Europe.
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Friends, in welcoming you I would like to take this
opportunity to touch upon one of the core objectives of this
Conference. Enough has been said and written about why
China gets far more investment than India and I do not
wish to dwell upon those factors.
May be to the surprise of many, I would like to say that I
take a positive view of this. The more I read and the more
I learn about Chinese economic impact on India and
Indian industries, the more I am struck by the sense of
growing nationalism as we are asking ourselves: "Why
can’t we have the Chinese miracle in India? Why can't we
have the same degree of success? We have the drive, we
have the know-how and we have the will to do so."
Therefore I thank China for outsourcing its strength to
India and creating this, shall I say, a small fire, within us.
However, we are also not far behind. Growth in India has
only started but the country's brainpower is already
reshaping corporate world.
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Those who have watched the CNN global debate live
telecast from New Delhi three weeks ago about business
process outsourcing, must have noticed how India is
shaping itself the as the global business powerhouse. Just
think what CNN or the BBC has got to do with this? The
fact is that India has started playing its global role and no
one can afford to ignore India. The speed at which the
global business environment is being influenced by India
is just amazing. The International media therefore were
quick enough to realize this dynamic shift.
In the context of trade and investment, it is true that there
is an impression in the minds of investors that India’s
administrative machinery is weak and corrupt and that
India still has many infrastructural problems compounded
with a lack of commitment to focus on attracting
investment.
This impression must change. The Indian community
abroad has the intellectual, political and economic
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potentials to bring this change; all that requires is a proper
co-ordination of their strength and resources. Let us
realize our power. Let us realize our strength.
This Conference therefore, I believe, offers us an
opportunity to change this mindset. One Conference is
not enough. This is the beginning of our mission and
GOPIO is determined to continue it and I confess, we
have miles to go before we can rest. GOPIO is an
organization with commitment and we believe in the future.
We believe that 21st century is India’s century. Tytlerji, we
offer our experience and expertise and we seek your cooperation and support to realize this dream. In the race to
become a global power, together we can win a Marathon,
together we can make India a global political and
economic entity and together only we can make a
difference.
The World Economic Forum has asked us if we could
become partner in their ongoing co-operation with India.
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Ms. Collete Mathur who is currently in India two days met
the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh has
informed him about this Conference. We have Ms.
Gunveena representing the WEF in this event and I take
this opportunity to convey to the WEF that we shall work
with them.
Tytlerji, each Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is a manifestation of
the aspirations of the Indian Diaspora. This Divas by the
Pravasi, to the Pravasi and for the Pravasi must address
global Diasporic issues but sadly there seem to be an
element of misplaced approach to the basic framework of
connecting with the Diaspora. Sir, in the service of the
Diaspora ours is the only global organization which has
stood the test of time and we refuse to be ignored.
It would not be out of place if I mention that in the pursuit
to become economic powerhouse, India as a nation needs
to become a brand name which is something missing from
the Indian psyche. When one talks of information
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technology, the attention of the world is directed to
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bombay. Why? Simply because
these cities and its IT industries have made a brand name
for themselves.
A restaurant outside India offering Indian cuisine whether
it is owned by an Indian, a European, a Pakistani, a
Bangaldeshi or even a Sri Lankan is only called the Indian
Restaurant and that is the importance of the brand name.
You may wish to create hundreds of thousands of Taj
Mahal, whether it is in the name of a hotel or resort, or
restaurant or travel agency, nothing can over shadow the
Taj Mahal and that is how she is the brand name for India.
If to-day, we have more than 225 business and community
leaders from all parts of globe, it is not because of Sunil,
not because of Thomas, not because of Inder but because
of the brand name that is called GOPIO, GOPIO.
Ladies and gentlemen, I once again welcome you all. Your
day is packed with brain storming sessions and I do hope
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that you will find the content and the context of the
conference useful. Tytlerji, we thank you so much once
again for being able to be with us. Friends, before I
conclude, I would like to quote the French scholar Romain
Rolland who once said: “If there is one place on the face
of the earth where all dreams of living men have found a
home from the very earliest days when man began the
dream of existence, it is India”.
Thank you very much.
4th October 2004
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